http://tyzhden.ua/News/131821 Decision was explained by economic unreasonableness. Shell and JSC “Ukrgazvydobuvannya” are discussing the process of termination of the joint venture agreement, which includes prospecting, exploration and production of unconventional gas in Kharkiv region. This was reported by the press service of the British company. According to the report, Shell and Ukrgazvydobuvannya completed exploration work performed under the contract. According to it two exploration wells were drilled: Bilyayevska-400 and Novo-Mechebylivska-100 (Pervomajsky and Bliznyukovsky districts, Kharkiv region.). “Based on information received as a result, the parties agreed that further activity under the project is no more economically expedient, and decided to terminate the contract,” – said in the statement. Now the wells elimination preparation is being proceeded, the process of drilling areas regeneration has begun. The company said that all works are in accordance with the current legislation of Ukraine, international environmental standards and the standards of Shell. As it was reported, in summer 2014 a statement of the head of the financial department of the company Simon Henry was published saying that Royal Dutch Shell suspended exploration of shale gas in eastern Ukraine due to fears for the safety of workers. Later, the company denied this information. We recall that in 2012 the winner to develop Yuzovsky area (located in Kharkiv and Donetsk regions) was the English-Dutch company Shell. The initial stage of geological study involved obtaining seismic data and drilling up to 15 wells. Already two exploration wells have been drilled (mentioned above)....

From climate change to Crimea, the natural gas industry is supreme at exploiting crisis for private gain – what I call the shock doctrine. The way to beat Vladimir Putin is to flood the European market with fracked-in-the-USA natural gas, or so the industry would have us believe. As part of escalating anti-Russian hysteria, two bills have been introduced into the US Congress – one in the House of Representatives (H.R. 6), one in the Senate (S. 2083) – that attempt to fast-track liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports, all in the name of helping Europe to wean itself from Putin’s fossil fuels, and enhancing US national security. According to Cory Gardner, the Republican congressman who introduced the House bill, “opposing this legislation is like hanging up on a 911 call from our friends and allies”. And that might be true – as long as your friends and allies work at Chevron and Shell, and the emergency is the need to keep profits up amid dwindling supplies of conventional oil and gas. For this ploy to work, it’s important not to look too closely at details. Like the fact that much of the gas probably won’t make it to Europe – because what the bills allow is for gas to be sold on the world market to any country belonging to the World Trade Organisation. Or the fact that for years the industry has been selling the message that Americans must accept the risks to their land, water and air that come with hydraulic fracturing (fracking) in order to help their country achieve “energy independence”. And now, suddenly and slyly, the goal has been switched to “energy security”, which apparently means selling a temporary glut of fracked gas on the world market, thereby creating energy dependencies abroad. And most of all, it’s important not to notice that building the infrastructure necessary to export gas on this scale would take many years in permitting and construction – a single LNG terminal can carry a $7bn price tag, must be fed by a massive, interlocking web of pipelines and compressor stations, and requires its own power plant just to generate energy sufficient to liquefy the gas through super-cooling. By the...

Friends of the Earth Spain launched a campaign titled “Municipalities Free From Fracking” aiming to raise awareness among local authorities on the huge impacts caused by the use of the fracking technique on the land, water, people and climate. The idea is also to encourage authorities and citizens to be part of the growing movement of people rejecting fracking in Spanish territories, with municipalities declaring themselves free from this activity and in favor of an energy model change. The coordinator of the Climate and Energy campaign of Friends of the Earth Spain, Hector de Prado, told Real World Radio that despite the “fracking free” declaration is symbolic, because it is not legally binding, it represents “an extremely powerful message to the industry that shows that the Spanish people don´t want fracking in their territory”. The Spanish environmental organization has created a new website for the campaign launched on March 25: http://municipioslibresdefracking.org/ There, they explain that fracking is a technique used to extract non conventional gas, such as shale gas, based on injecting millions of litres of water, sand and chemical substances into underground land, aiming to recover the gas stored kilometers deep. “First you have to drill vertically, and then horizontally to inject this chemical mix at high pressure to break the shale underground so that the gas it contains can flow back to the surface of the well”. Currently, there are between 400 and 500 municipalities in Spain that have declared themselves free from fracking, ever since in early 2010 the companies started exploration works to search for non conventional gas in the country. According to Hector de Prado, there are currently 60 to 70 exploration permits granted in Spain. It is not known whether theses permits are targeted to find non conventional gas, because the law in Spain does not require companies to state what is they are looking for. However, Friends of the Earth Spain believes these are projects to develop fracking activities due to the type of companies involved and their features. In addition, de Prado explained that Spain is extremely dependent on fossil fuels imported from other countries and the government is “obsessed” with breaking with this dependence, and therefore fracking...

Euro-Maghreb frack-free network Calling for a ban on all unconventional hydrocarbons and extractivism United to denounce, in Europe and the Maghreb, the development of extreme fossil energy, dangerous for climate, environment and public health, and anti-democratic We, representatives of grassroots groups and associations from 211 European and North African countries, nations and communities, met in Saint-Christol-lez- Alès (Gard, SE France) from March 7th to 9th 2014. All of us are involved in the fight against the development of unconventional hydrocarbons2 in our own countries and communities, as well as opposing other resource extraction activities. We are all facing the same issues, and we believe it is essential to strengthen the links between our struggles. The Korbach3 Declaration formulates the key demands which unite us. Participants gave an alarming presentation of the situation in their respective countries. In that respect, we condemn in particular: Damage to the environment, public health and water resources; Disregard for environmental regulations on a national, European and North African level; Commodification and financialisation of territories; Violent police intervention, repeated violations of human rights and non-respect of the rights of local communities to decide their future, particularly in Poland, Romania, the UK, Ukraine, Tunisia and Morocco. The use of police forces by States to defend private interests. In addition, we call on international organisations and bodies to put an end to these violations immediately, and we demand that they force industrial players to restore environmentally degraded areas. The free trade treaties, in place or under negotiation (the bilateral EU/USA (TAFTA), EU/Canada (CETA), EU/Maghreb treaties, etc.), risk outweighing the decision making power of States in favour of multinational corporations. By prioritising private interests through the investor-state dispute settlement mechanism (ISDS), they will defy the foundations of democracy, the precautionary principle, all environmental legislation and the independence of the judiciary. As we stated last January in an open letter4addressed to the European Commission and signed by over 400 European groups, the progress achieved thanks to our mobilisation could be altogether undermined. That is why we have decided on joint action aimed at mobilising the general public and at forcing European authorities to defend and strengthen the rights of populations and environmental legislation. This...

New York Times has a front-page story reporting on a major push in the Obama administration and by Speaker Boehner to increase exports of fracked gas in response to the crisis in the Ukraine. While events there are certainly disturbing, they should not be used as an excuse for ramping up dirty gas exports that will harm communities air, water and health in the United States. According to the Times, a major push to export dirty fracked gas is underway, led by “major oil and gas producers like ExxonMobil and Republican leaders on Capitol Hill.” Just last Tuesday, Speaker John Boehner called on President Obama to “dramatically expedite the approval of U.S. exports of natural gas.” Yet according to the Times, the administration is already moving to advance a “State Department initiative to export American natural gas to Europe as a lever against Russia.” One of the craziest things about this, is that the U.S. currently does not have the capacity to export large amounts of natural gas overseas, and so the claim that building out infrastructure to export fracked gas would help with the current crisis in Ukraine is just disingenuous. Long term, we need to invest in sustainable renewable energy, at home and abroad. ExxonMobil should not be controlling our foreign policy, and we should not be sacrificing communities across the United States for illusory and short-term foreign policy objectives. As a movement, we have made tremendous progress, but if the oil and gas industry get their way, ramped-up exports would drive even more fracking. Ironically, as fracking accounts for a large amount of climate pollution, increasing exports and accelerating fracking will actually lead to more long-term instability and global security issues. Food & Water...